Kimchi has secured global status as a health food. 

The spicy condiment in 2001 gained recognition as an international standard from the Rome, Italy-based Codex Alimentarius Commission under the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization and was selected in 2006 as one of the world's five healthiest foods by the U.S. magazine Health.

UNESCO in 2013 shined the global spotlight on kimjang, or the culture of making and sharing kimchi, after putting it on its List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

  
Since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, the world has recognized kimchi as a health food that strengthens the immune system and a leading Korean food thanks to the booming popularity worldwide of Hallyu (Korean Wave) like K-pop and K-dramas.

Attesting to kimchi's global popularity, the number of countries importing the food last year reached a record-high 93. Kimchi is also showing rapid market growth in North America and Europe given its image as a health or vegan food.

Kimchi epitomizes fermentation science. Mixing and fermenting its main ingredients like kimchi cabbage, radish and cucumber along with secondary ingredients like red pepper powder, garlic, ginger and salted seafood yields a unique flavor and depth, while producing nutrients and many probiotics absent from the original ingredients.

Nov. 22 is Kimchi Day, a date that represents using its ingredients one by one (symbolized by November being the year's 11th month) for the food to provide 22 functional health benefits. As the first legal memorial day for food designated by the Korean government, the occasion is designed to promote the kimchi industry, pass on and further develop kimjang, and spread to the public the nutritional value and importance of kimchi.

California in 2021 was the first to designate Kimchi Day as a commemoration day outside of Korea through the Korean government-funded World Institute of Kimchi's provision of specialized data on the condiment's science, history and culture collected over many years. 

Other American states and cities like New York and Washington have also proclaimed Kimchi Day, with the U.S. federal government designating Nov. 22 as Kimchi Day. The Royal Borough of Kingston in London and Sao Paulo, Brazil, followed suit, while Argentina adopted the occasion as a national anniversary day.

The designation of Kimchi Day abroad became a catalyst for generating changes in the condiment's globalization. Hawaii, which also designated Kimchi Day, has Hawaii Kimchi Museum, while British King Charles III in November last year visited Koreatown in New Malden of Kingston and received kimchi there for his 75th birthday.

Kimchi was a food with a sad history eaten by ethnic Koreans in countries far from their motherland as they missed their hometowns, but also served as a medium that united such Koreans and people of the host country into one social community. The food's status has also changed relations between both sets of people.

Once a dish to try once, kimchi is now a health food whose excellence has been scientifically proven and something for people to enjoy and make themselves, thus showing positive changes.

For more people around the world to enjoy kimchi, traditional methods of making it must not only be preserved but changes are needed in the ways to promote the dish, like explaining cooking methods easy for non-Koreans to understand and its enjoyment with the domestic cuisines of host countries.

Merging kimchi with the food culture of the host country will lead to the creation of many localized and multinational versions of kimchi and related dishes, and use of the spicy condiment as a medium can be expected to result in the convergence and prosperity of food cultures among countries across national borders.

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Since August 2021, Chang Hae Choon has served as president of the World Institute of Kimchi.

Translated by Korea.net staff writer Lee Jihae.